es of the
religion, and received with deference by early Christian churches; more
especially not forgetting what credit is due to the New Testament in its
capacity of cumulative evidence; we now proceed to state the proper and
distinct proofs, which show not only the general value of these records,
but their specific authority, and the high probability there is that
they actually came from the persons whose names they bear.

There are, however, a few preliminary reflections, by which we may draw
up with more regularity to the propositions upon which the close and
particular discussion of the subject depends. Of which nature are the
following:

I. We are able to produce a great number of ancient manuscripts, found
in many different countries, and in countries widely distant from each
other, all of them anterior to the art of printing, some Certainly seven
or eight hundred years old, and some which have been preserved probably
above a thousand years.* We have also many ancient versions of these
books, and some of them into languages which are not at present, nor for
many ages have been, spoken in any part of the world. The existence of
these manuscripts and versions proves that the Scriptures were not the
production of any modern contrivance. It does away also the uncertainty
which hangs over such publications as the works, real or pretended, of
Ossian and Rowley, in which the editors are challenged to produce their
manuscripts and to show where they obtained their copies. The number of
manuscripts, far exceeding those of any other book, and their wide
dispersion, afford an argument, in some measure to the senses, that the
Scriptures anciently, in like manner as at this day, were more read and
sought after than any other books, and that also in many different
countries. The greatest part of spurious Christian writings are utterly
lost, the rest preserved by some single manuscript. There is weight also
in Dr. Bentley's observation, that the New Testament has suffered less
injury by the errors of transcribers than the works of any profane
author of the same size and antiquity; that is, there never was any
writing, in the preservation and purity of which the world was so
interested or so careful.

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* The Alexandrian manuscript, now in the British Museum, was written
probably in the fourth or fifth century.
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II. An argument of great weight with those who are judges of the proofs
upon which it is f